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It's early December, and I'm amazed by the fact that some plants are still green and healthy. Maybe it's because I haven't grown them for a few years so I've forgotten how cold-tolerant they are, but the snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) are looking better now than they have all year.

They started really slowly in the spring, some of them being ravaged by some critter (rabbits? pill bugs? slugs?), and seemed to stop doing anything when summer was its hottest. Once colder temps arrived though, they really woke up.

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We've had a few nights where temperatures dipped to 25ºF (-4ºC), and that didn't seem to faze them at all:

The foliage is lush and beautiful, and there are even some blooms left:

I grew up in a yard that contained exactly six different flowers: a climbing rose, candy tufts, tiger lilies, red tulips, a rose of sharon bush, and snapdragons.

So I grow snapdragons mainly for emotional reasons -- it's never been a must-have plant for me. I do love the way the blooms can be used as little puppets though.

There are certainly other plants that are still green in my garden:

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium)

Coral bells (Heuchera)

Bamboo (Indocalamus tessellatus and Pleioblastus fortunei)

Euonymous. Something for the deer to eat.

Those are all perennials though, while the snapdragons are not. I'll enjoy them while I can I guess.

With temperatures dropping to 19ºF last night, I suspect that once it gets light I'll find that these guys don't look as good as they did when I took these photos.

I'm hoping that these dropped lots of seed this year, so I won't have to make an effort to grow any of these ever again.

As long as they look as good as they do now, I'll welcome them every year.

I had no idea snapdragons were that hardy--and still blooming in mid December!! I used to get a six pack of snapdragons every year but I find that aphids and other pests love them and they never look good for very long in our garden.